Blogging Discussion: The YA Genre | Who Is It “For”, Who “Should” Be Book Blogging? Basically: Everyone’s Equal

Oh, look! Here I am, tackling another topic that terrifies me!!

Just wanna say real quick: a person can read whatever book they’d like, these are my opinions, I’m not looking to offend or attack anyone with this, I am NOT portraying adult book bloggers as terrible people (I actually think they’re great!!) and TBH I just wish that the arguments over this would end.

I’ve seen a LOT of drama about this on a particular platform named ‘Twitter’ ie The Battleground. People just say whatever they like and disregard people’s feelings and opinions and I just sit here like??? *confused* ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I literally have LOST COUNT of the times I’ve seen drama on twitter. I don’t think that you can even help stumbling across drama on this site. It’s actually crazy???

I wrote a very antsy tweet about it:

And I stand by this.

I think that ‘YA’ is a very debatable genre. AND YES, IT’S A GENRE. It’s a classification of books that all fit into the same TARGET AUDIENCE.

I don’t think it’s right to say who can or cannot read a YA book. Anyone can, just like I could walk into a library and check out a book from the ADULT thriller section, despite being a TEEN. I think that saying adults cannot read YA is utterly hypocritical since teens aren’t shouted at for reading adult books.

I think that telling adults that they aren’t allowed to read YA is like telling a boy that they cannot read contemporary.Contemporary books may be aimed at a female audience most of the time*, but that doesn’t mean that a male reader couldn’t pick it up, read it, and enjoy it just as much as a female reader would, or lack the same right as a female reader to talk about how much they enjoyed it!!**

Adults can talk about how much they love YA just as much as teens, but that does not mean that the YA genre “belongs” to adults!! It doesn’t belong to anyone!! You can’t own a classification!!

Young Adults are technically 18-30-year-olds. YEAH. However, these “young adult” books are targeted to those 14/15+ sometimes, and the “adult” is 18+ but really, does it even matter? Just because a book is targeted at one age group, does that mean that only that group can read it? NO.

I think that a lot of this argument over “who owns YA” is actually a lot more about blogging, and who “should” be YA BOOK BLOGGERS.

This tweet here was in relation to a series of arguments/threads claiming that adults support books more on the book communityand yes, they probably do since they actually have the money to buy the current releases, and can promote books more since they have a larger audience due to being here longer.

However, it makes the teen bloggers feel like they’re not doing a good enough job even though they work SO hard to promote books in any way that they can. And for all that, just to be looked down on? No thank you. Honestly, I’m so grateful that I know so many amazing adult book bloggers that have never made me feel like this.

*don’t agree that they should be!! **more NEEDS to be said on this!!

I think that as a teen (being one myself) it’s really hard for us to get a voice in the community compared to adults. And, if I’m honest, it kind of makes sense to me? Adult bloggers have been on the platform longer, so OF COURSE, they have a greater voice. But does that mean they have more of a right? NO!!

But I think that it’s really hard to come into the community that we’re “meant” to have a place in because it feels like a battle sometimes. It feels like we have to literally push for ourselves to be heard in a place that is targeted for us to talk about the books that are aimed at us? Does this make sense??

I think that some teens believe adult bloggers don’t want them there when we have a right to be here just as adults also have the right. My personal impression from some of the arguments that I’ve seen on Twitter really do support teen bloggers, and that’s amazing!! But, some of them think that supporting a teen blogger every now and then makes what they say about adults being better bloggers okay? And that teens in the blogging community are people that need to have this support just because they’re younger?

I’m not saying that it’s wrong for adults to be in this type of blogging, I actually think that it’s super cool and I actually aspire to be like some of the amazing adult book bloggers that I know because they’re so wonderful and have such a positive and supportive platform. I’m not saying only teens can blog about YA.

Obviously, I am not categorising and/or saying that all adult bloggers look down upon teen bloggers because I know so many wonderful adult bloggers who have been nothing but supportive. I am just saying that sometimes, it feels this way when we see things that say things about the superiority of adult bloggers????????

I DON’T KNOW– THIS IS A SCARY TOPIC!!!

Did this make sense? What do you think about this topic? Do you think that these squabbles on Twitter should end too? Do you also think that there shouldn’t be limitations on who can read YA or blog about YA? What do you think? LET ME KNOW!!

Man this post made me feel old. 🙈 I was all like, “Yeah! Teen bloggers!” while reading when I realized I’m 25 and knee-deep into adulthood. I do tend to prefer teen bloggers, though. It’s not usually a conscious decision…usually I don’t even notice age when I follow, but I end up primarily following teen bloggers.

This is an overall interesting discussion topic. I think most of us agree that everyone should feel free to read whatever they want to read, but once you get into the talk of adults making decisions about YA…it’s messy. Yes, they buy YA books, which means that certain books will sell better if they appeal to an older audience even though they’re not the target audience. But you don’t want them NOT to buy books because buying books and supporting authors is a good thing. I wonder if there are any YA awards out there that are voted on by only teens?

literally already stated all my opinions on tweitter and everything has been said in the comments so just here to say thank you for this beautiful posts, and putting the truth out there you absolute QUEEN

When it comes to this discussion, I hide a lot. I don’t like to talk because I’m not a book blogger and I don’t feel like I have seen enough to be able to have a legitimate thing to say about it. However, what I will say is this: you’ve expressed what I think. Drama terrifies me and some of the stuff I’ve seen is just upsetting because it’s confrontational and makes a lot of assumptions. Thank you for speaking out xx

This is such an amazing post!!! I absolutely agree with everything you’ve said here omg. EVERYONE can read YA, even if it’s targeted towards teens!! It just absolutely sucks for anyone to make teen readers feel inferior or under appreciated, because that is just so wrong and it’s not fair??? Adults of course have the advantage of being able to freely purchase books whereas teens are far more limited in that aspect and it’s just so DUMB to say YA isn’t for teens just because of the purchasing ability?? Just cause it’s targeted towards teens doesn’t mean anyone else can’t read it!!

Also teen bloggers are so amazing!! I started as a teen blogger myself and have been around for like 3 years now (I’m still shook that I’m almost not considered a teen anymore lol) and I know plenty of adult bloggers who are great voices, but there are also so many teen bloggers I admire and deserve recognition??? It makes me so sad that teens have to fight to have a voice in a community based off books targeted towards them, it’s just so wrong. Adult bloggers are in no way more superior to teen bloggers and I’m just shaking my head so much at anyone who thinks they are. (CAN’T WE ALL JUST SIT DOWN AND READ BOOKS AND EAT CAKE HAPPILY JEEZ)

Your and every teen’s voice out there matters!! I truly hope the adult community does better, because no one deserves to feel like their voice doesn’t matter/matters less. It doesn’t.

Such a great discussion, Lu! ❤ I’m glad that you decided to talk on the matter even though it was scary for you, you did so well!! 💕 I definitely think everyone should be allowed to read YA and not looked down for reading it. I also think blogging is not a competition and every blogger is trying very hard to support the books and authors they like, it’s important to be aware of the different resources they have too. I really wish those conflicts from Twitter would stop because they’re counterproductive for our community. Thank you for this post! It was very needed!

This is a wonderful topic! I am a adult blogger who mainly reads YA and I agree YA is forever one. Everyone has different types of books they love and I think it sad that everyone is always trying to label books. My opinion is that book are books and if you love the book read the book. I honestly don’t think the book companies or authors care who reads the book.
Wonderful post.

I’m not really aware of any of the Twitter drama (mainly because I’m not on twitter) but I’ve heard this argument a few times before and I don’t think this will be the last time it’s brought up either (which is kind of sad because yeah I don’t think young adult books are just for teens). I mean when authors are writing these books with teen protagonists they probably have that audience in mind, and it’s likely that a teenager would get more out of the story because they’re automatically going to be able to identify with someone their own age easier than an adult would, but that doesn’t mean the genre is just for teenagers.
Like you said contemporary books aren’t solely for a female audience though they may be the target audience (there is a very big difference between a books target audience and who should read said book). In my opinion people should be able to read whatever they like. Why force ourselves to read books we’re not going to enjoy just because someone thinks we’re too old for the YA genre. 😀
Great post Lu, I loved reading your thoughts on this topic. 🙂

I’m with you… I just don’t understand, how it’s anyone’s business who reads what…

When i was 14-18 years old, i have not read a single YA book, wasn’t even really aware of their existence, so i just read my mum’s (adult) books, or got my own adult books, and nobody batted an eye. So i’m not sure why it would be a problem if an adult wanted to read a YA book, or a children’s book, or basically any book.

Ah, yes! I realized I was a bit bothered recently whenever the whole “adults can’t read YA” discussion crops up, that the first thing people say is “well, adults are the largest buyers of YA!” Well of course they are: they have money. As a teenager, I don’t, and when I do, it’s gift cards. I mean, I can occasionally wear down my mom to buy me a book, but SHE is the one buying it…I’m the one reading it. So I don’t think it’s really a source to use??? I DON’T KNOW.

I’ve personallh never had troubles as a teen in the blogging community, but the assumption that adults are better at it? Nope. Maybe that’s just because I’ve seen a lot of adults whose basic idea of blogging is reviewing every book they read with five stars and basically every post they publish is pushed or sponsored by a publisher…but no. 🙈

*APPLAUSE* I commend you for writing this post! This topic seems to always be debated on Twitter – it’s SO SIMPLE! It’s like saying that fantasy can’t be read by girls or whatever. It’s either teens or adults it seems for most people – YA is for teens so adults can’t read it or vise versa – um NO?? YA is written for EVERYONE!! I’ve read adult books but I’m not an adult! Genres shouldn’t be limited to a certain group of people based on age, gender, etc. However, this being said, when there is a YA book and a teenager says that the teens aren’t portrayed like how teens act then there should be a conversation about how adults in the YA community need to start listening to what the teens are saying. Again, great post!

Thank you so much!! Exactly, why limit a books audience??? It’s totally stupid! Omg yes that’s a great point actually, I think that teens are portrayed as really arrogant and naive in books??? Just putting it out there????

YES! And stereotypes ~ there are so many stereotypes like a teenager can be more than one thing. Someone can play sports and be smart, for example. And a lot of teenagers (especially these days) aren’t arrogant and naive – they’re pretty aware of current issues and like being well-informed.

YESS TOO MANYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!! Yes they don’t understand that teens now aren’t naive and actually get involved with things such as politics and equality and want to have a voice and don’t have their heads in the clouds!!

Great post, I agree, genres shouldn’t be restricted to only a certain kind of person, and instead we should stop being so restrictive on what people read! Great post, I had no idea this was such an issue!

This totally made sense!! I’m a teen blogger too, but I’m really new to it, so luckily I haven’t experienced this adult vs teen debate yet. But as for who should read YA books: literally everyone?? and anyone?? My dad pretty much only reads YA books and it’s great because I can discuss all the books I read with him. Plus, he and I both agree that YA books are much better than my mom’s huge collection of “adult” novels (most of which are cheesy romance stories). It all depends on taste, and why should your age determine your taste?? Anyone can read any book they want, and saying otherwise based on labels of “YA” vs “adult” is silly.

I don’t really get this argument either, and I’ve mainly tried to stay out of it because it seems kind of ridiculous to me. I’m with you. People can read what they want. People can blog about what they want. That’s basically my opinion. Obviously YA books are generally written with a teen audience in mind (arguably, not always, however; I went to an author talk once where the author said she wrote her book for adults but her agent/editor wanted to market it as teen), but anyone can read it. Also, yeah, it’s an “advantage” that adult bloggers tend to have more money to buy books, but that’s money that allows YA books to continue being published for anyone who wants to read them.

Also, I have to say that I generally have no idea what age people are online. Whether someone is an adult or teen blogger doesn’t really matter to me, as long as they’re saying interesting things about books. I won’t even know your age unless you mention it–and mention it repeatedly, because I follow enough bloggers I might not remember Blogger X said they were 17 or 27 or whatever.

Exactly, I don’t think that it even matters???? Why should it!? We should care more about the people that we’re interacting with than their age; if you get a lot with them, then what’s the point? *responding to this what I call “fashionably late” so I feel better about replying to this comment so lateeeeeee*

i don’t do book twitter, so i am usually completely unaware of all drama in the book-blogging community unless it’s happening in the uber small niche of goodreads i pay attention to. or here. it seems ridiculous to me that people are in such a goddamn tizzy over this!! there’s a lot of non-teen insecurity over reading YA, i think, so maybe adults are just overcompensating by being all “We Are Adults. We Spend Money. We Are In Charge.” the irony is that they sound like the villainous parent in every YA contemporary of all time.

i loved this post as i love all of your discussion posts as i love all of your posts!

AWW EMMAAAAAAAA!!!!! Omg ikr, so silly I can’t even. Yeah exactly, and it’s like,,, stop putting teens down bc you want to be all “we are adults. We spend money. We are in charge.” And it’s like,, NO ONE IS ATTACKING YOU. And personally, I just want everyone to be happy and read the books they wanna read and love the books that they love!!

Book blogging is a lot of hard work! I can’t imagine being a teenager in school keeping up with school work and blogging. I also can’t imagine being a mom and blogging! Everyone deserves credit for all the hard work put into book blogging.
There shouldn’t even be an argument.
Books are for everyone regardless of age, just because a book is marketed as YA doesn’t mean a younger or older person can’t pick up that book. I feel the same way about younger kids and teenagers reading adult books. If that individual person can handle that content they should be allowed, without judgement, to get to read whatever book.
Can’t we all just get along!!!

So true! Books belong to everyone and I don’t think anyone should own the market on a genre. As for book blogging, teen bloggers deserve SO MUCH RESPECT. I’m an adult blogger but I totally stand in awe of teen bloggers. I couldn’t blog as a teen because my parents didn’t let me have access to the wifi until I was 19. (Ok, super strict parents 😂) But I think teen bloggers are AMAZING.
Actually, all bloggers are amazing and I hope we can all just love and support each other. 🙂

aahhh Lu I love this post!! I saw the Twitter discussions from afar but I honestly don’t get why people think YA is for adults??? it literally says “YOUNG adult” in it’s name lmao. but again, just because it’s meant for one age group doesn’t mean that other people can’t read it!! I think people forget that things like this are AIMED for a certain audience, but just because it isn’t “aimed” towards you specifically doesn’t mean you can’t read it.

also I love the reply to the argument that adults support YA more, about adults being able to afford books. like teens still are in school and don’t have time for jobs. like YES, the only money I get is when I ask for it from my mom (which my dad disapproves of, and I feel bad so I barely do it anyway lmao) or when I get it from writing contests or as a gift. you can’t blame teens for not supporting as much when they CAN’T. (also some teens are support libraries by checking out lots of YA books and that’s really important so)

Honestly, like yes????? B/c sure a book is aimed at a group but that doesn’t limit the readership!!

And omg yes if I could, I would go and buy all the ya books that I want, and support all the authors that I could, but I’m in school, I don’t have a job, and I don’t want to spend all my parents’ money on books and I feel bad for asking!! I’m lucky that my parents give me money each month (which i still feel bac about tbh) but I don’t like spending all of it on books!! AND yes, TEENS ARE KEEPING LIBRARIES ALIVE.

Honestly…”I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school. I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.” Haha, but in all seriousness, I think these squabbles should just end. Books and book blogging is for everyone, regardless of age, gender etc. As long as you read, blog, talk about books or anything else really, it doesn’t matter. Great discussion topic as per usual!

Technically, I am an “adult” book blogger, although I don’t title myself this way. I’m just a book blogger. I read a ton of genre’s with YA being one of them. I initially started reading YA books because I was doing research for my own writing and wanted to learn more about the genre. Then I got hooked. There are some great writers out there! Do I feel silly for reading them sometimes? Sort of? I don’t read the romances and stick mostly to fantasy, although if there is a book thats being talked about a lot like The Hate U Give, I’ll pick it up, just as I would an adult book like Gone Girl or Girl on a Train. I’m sure those kind of titles cross age groups, right? So, I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t think it matters how old you are to read a certain book or write about it as long as you’re respectful. Thanks for writing about this topic, it made me think!

Exactly, I think that it’s brilliant that people across all ages are reading the same books!! I think that it doesn’t matter how old you are — you can read any book, and love it. You don’t have to fit into the aimed audience and be the target audience!!

Another great post! I’m an adult blogger who mostly reads YA and I totally think anyone of any age can read any book. I have friends my age that read a ton of YA and some that barely read any. I do hate that teen bloggers have a harder time getting books (some of them). I would hope publishers can start helping them out with that a bit more.